UniS

USM was my introduction to computer games! I remember swapping it with the my nextdoor neighbour for my copy of Fifa - and I couldn't stop playing it! The little details were great, if a little flawed... Like being able to charge £999 for a matchday programme and still selling some. I used to love upgrading the stadiums too - of course it'll never happen in FM because it's not what a manager actually does but it was really good fun...

Macdrive? Or is that for something different...?

I witnessed 'Smiffffffy' from Gavin and Stacey trying to chat her up. He failed.

Noticed that too... made me chuckle...

That's supposed to be "crude" of course, not "crud"

Off topic I know, but on a similar note I had the misfortune to be in front of a box at the FA Cup match which contained particularly ignorant Mancs. One of them took delight in mocking our chants of 'Only One Bobby Stokes with comments about him being dead etc etc. Yet, didn't seem to have an answer when I asked how he'd feel if we were crud enough to say the same thing about the Munich air crash. Just a bunch of smug, arrogant b******s. And for that reason, I hope they crash out in the quarter finals, and go on a losing streak for the rest of the season. The same with Arsenal, actually...

This is the guy who bought them...

Yeah, that bloody Saint Francis eh?

People who stop at roundabouts when there are no cars going round it. In particular the guy I went into the back of in Guildford this weekend, thus destroying the front of my car and leaving his totally unscathed.

75 miles from my current house in West London to St. Marys... and that's if I drove straight there, without picking people up. Will be less next year when I'm back in Guildford..

Depressingly I'd wager that some of the Skate students would know what the plural of university is... However... get in! 2-0, 3-0, 18-3...

Don't know how much use this will be, but could help...

Very tempted by this. What would it cost to have it posted to London? Or would you deliver to Eastleigh?

Surely "send in the clowns" is more appropriate?

...a taxi? We can only hope

I appreciate what you are trying to say, but this happens a lot. Then again, there's generally a mutual respect between artist and engineer as they know they are just doing their jobs. Bands wouldn't sound as good if they didn't "****" around with levels during recording...

Presumably by accessing the shed via your back door, which you can open?

Not original, but in no particular order: Matt Le Tissier vs Arsenal, last match at the Dell. Got absolutely crushed in the celebrations but well worth it. The goals in our win against the Skates just after Ted Bates had passed away. Seemed so just to get one over them after the way they were during the 'minutes' silence. I have a video of Rasiaks goal against Derby (playoffs) on my computer and it puts a smile on my face every time I watch it. That night will live with me forever.

Hmmm, sounds like the input isn't routed to the output. (that sounds so wonderfully simple doesn't it?) Is there anything in audio preferences, like the level of the mic being turned down/muted? The other possibility is that Windows has no software that will allow direct plugging through of input to output - wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. It might be worth looking for Audacity and setting it up to 'monitor audio input' or something - that should mean you can hear the mic?

right... errr... I'd suggest you need to find some sort of software as I'm pretty sure Windows doesn't come with anything that will allow 3 channel playback (2 from the stereo music track, 1 form your microphone) A good free one is Audacity - but that depends on whether you want to be able to do this real time or if you are simply recording voice on top of the music. Ultimately, you're trying to 'mix' three input channels into two output channels. Have a look for some 'DJ' software... that is basically all they do.

Good for settling arguments... Once asked them "who was the highest place team in the English football league system to use solely english players in the 2007/08 season." Cheltenham Town. That's one for all you quiz masters out there. Only used it once, because it's free the first time.

http://www.studiospares.com/Portable-PA/Behringer-Europort-Epa40/invt/381600 Decent enough bet

This guy - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eiDDJ-I47rA - isn't helping your cause... But I can see from your posts that you aren't stupid like this bloke!

Some interesting and very valid points from a man who knows his stuff. But I think I should argue/discuss the case for digital media a bit more... I agree that vinyl is, in theory, an exact replication of the original. However, this system is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. For example, you could have a perfectly cut vinyl, but if your needle is a bit knackered or you haven't kept the vinyl very well then you are causing distortions to the signal. With CD, the only distortions come during the quantisation process and after that the only colouration comes from your amplifer/loudspeakers/headphones etc (the same as with playing vinyl). The whole process has sophisticated error correction to ensure that the data, from the engineers image file to the CD played on home systems, is the same. With a 44.1 kHz sampling frequency that gives a Nyquist frequency of over 22 kHz (surely adequate given that the average CD buying human can only hear up to about 16 kHz), and a 16bit quantisation depth (giving 65,536 'levels' - again, surely enough given that the human ear can only notice changes of around 1dB), the quality of the reproduction, while not technically perfect, is very close to it. I hope all the added punctuation still makes that legible. To address another point... testing a CD's performance after being beaten half to death, scratched by an angry pack of tigers and then burned is all well and good, but I'm sure it would come out with flying colours when compared to the shattered melting remains of an LP. I agree that the life of the CD is often overestimated. As with vinyl you have to keep it carefully to ensure it'll last a long time, but its still much less susceptible to damage. They're also a lot easier and cheaper to make (can of worms there I feel) But I do agree with pretty much all of what you say, particularly your summary. A lot of people make the mistake of buying products from Bose, whose whole company is essentially a joke in the audio world. They simply use equalisation to make their speakers sound nice and use very cheap and crude parts. So yes, it makes some things sound nice, but imagine the dreadful feeling you'll have when you suddenly realise that in fact you could have downloaded the EQ sheets from the net and bought a simple equaliser (back on topic, YES!) for the same result. And you wouldn't be paying £300 a month to some Germans. Ultimately I think it's a bit like owning a vintage car... The workmanship is incredible, a technology from when things were made to last and when quality was more important than quantity. But it takes effort (and money) to keep them maintained and working at an acceptable level. Whereas with CD (or modern cars...) you can buy a standard version, it'll work perfectly well but perhaps loses some of the 'magic'. Now I hope that makes some vague sense, and I know I've probably contradicted myself a few times. But hey, it's early. Oh yeah... another, more technically minded, point... CD subcode is amazing and very useful! A part of my job (albeit not a large one) is making compilation CDs for record companies from a load of old material they have. And believe me, the CD subcode is a fantastic invention! As are track numbers... This job must be a nightmare to do from vinyl pressings!

To all you audiophiles out there... get this! http://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=AP-CDSL At the bargain price of $25, it MUST be a good investment. This post graciously acknowledges the help of the following website http://www.ilikejam.org/blog/audio/audiophile.html Seriously though, to you people who still have vinyl players... Is it a nostalgia thing, or because (as is technically true, albeit a somewhat flawed theory) that vinyl cuttings are truer recordings than digital formats? Or is it something else?